This invention relates to improved applicators for applying a dry fertilizer or insecticide material to the earth adjacent a plant.
The usual process of fertilizing plants such as rose bushes, camellia bushes, azalea bushes, and the like involves measuring out an appropriate amount of the fertilizer in a cup or other container, pouring the material from the container onto the earth's surface at locations about the base of the plant, and then raking the surface slightly or otherwise working the material into the upper layer of earth. If the plant has substantial foliage near the ground level, it may be difficult to reach past that foliage to properly position and work in the fertilizer, and it is a sufficiently dirty job to discourage many persons from giving the proper regular treatment to their plants. Also, use of a standard rake for distributing the fertilizer may damage the very sensitive surface roots of a plant such as a rose, camellia, azalea or the like.
There have been proposed various devices for attempting to facilitate the application of fertilizer to planted areas, such as for example the tool shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,911,692, in which a tubular body has a hopper at its upper end for holding a supply of the fertilizing material and has a lower pointed end adapted to be forced into the surface of the earth to make an opening into which some of the fertilizer may then be discharged through an opening formed in the side of the tubular body above the pointed end. U.S. Pat. No. 2,857,864 shows a device in which rotation of a crank type handle at the upper end of a body turns a screw at the lower end of the body to force dry material from a hopper near the screw into the earth. U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,067 shows a device having a bottom flapper valve for discharging pellets from a tube.